Matteo Berrettini made a winning return to the hard courts by navigating a tricky matchup against Gregoire Barrere at the Canadian Open in Toronto.
The Italian hasn't had a very good season so far, with a lot of injury problems and generally lacklustre play. In a recent interview, Berrettini detailed some of those struggles admitting to dealing with some mental stuff as well.
Things started to turn around at Wimbledon where he played despite being unsure. He didn't think he was ready to play but then made a good effort to win a couple of matches before bowing out against Carlos Alcaraz.
The result gave him confidence which was clearly visible in the match today. Gregoire Barrere is anything but an easy out as the French player has a solid serve with an aggressive style of play. The match was very fast-paced as we saw plenty of rallies finished rather quickly but also because Barrere doesn't play long rallies. He generally tries to attack and lives with the consequences but he couldn't really enforce that today.
The serve was a huge issue for the French player as it didn't work as well as he needed it, giving Berrettini plenty of chances. The Italian himself produced a really sturdy effort serving lights out which made things really easy for him.
He was almost unbreakable losing only a handful of points behind his serve with some fantastic baseline play as well. The first set finished 6-4 as the Italian got the break he needed and then simply focused on keeping his serve.
The playbook was identical in the second set. An early break gave him exactly what he needed and from there, it was largely cruise control. The final score was 6-4 6-3 for the Italian who will face Jannik Sinner in the next round. He had 10 aces, 24 winners and only 3 unforced errors.
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